Aircraft display systems are capable of providing an observer (e.g., a pilot) with a considerable amount of information relating to the aircraft's position, flight plan, and surrounding environment (e.g., nearby geographical features, such as airports and mountains). An aircraft display system typically includes at least one monitor, which may be, for example, a head down display (HDD) screen. A processor utilizes information received from a variety of data sources to generate multiple displays on the monitor. These displays typically include a two dimensional moving map display and may include a three dimensional perspective display. The moving map display may include a top-down view of the aircraft, the flight plan, and the surrounding environment. Various symbols are utilized to denote navigational cues (e.g., waypoint symbols, line segments interconnecting the waypoint symbols, range rings) and nearby environmental features (e.g., terrain, weather conditions, political boundaries, etc). By comparison, the perspective display is a forward-looking view, which may be somewhat similar to the view from the cockpit on a clear day. Like the moving map display, the perspective display may include various navigational cues (e.g., graphics indicating the heading, track, and attitude of the aircraft). However, unlike the moving map display, the perspective display indicates geographical features as rendered or “synthetic” terrain.
The moving map display and the perspective display each provide a pilot (or other observer) with important navigational information. For example, the moving map display permits a pilot to easily determine the aircraft's location with reference to geographical landmarks, including significant geographical features (e.g., ridges, mountain ranges, valleys, etc.) and man-made structures (e.g., airports). Consequently, a pilot may refer to the moving map display when guiding an aircraft to a particular destination. The perspective display, by comparison, provides information regarding the aircraft's orientation (e.g., the aircraft's attitude, altitude, pitch, roll, etc.) and aspects of nearby geographical features in an intuitive manner. Thus, a pilot may refer to the perspective display when navigating around a geographical feature, such as a mountain.
The moving map display and perspective display may be produced one or more monitors. For example, the moving map display and perspective display may be produced simultaneously on a single screen in a split-screen or picture-in-picture format. However, even when the displays are produced simultaneously on a single monitor, an observer may have difficulty correlating (i.e., associating) the information provided by the moving map display and with that provided by the perspective display. In particular, the observer may be unable to determine which portion of the moving map display is shown in the perspective display because conventional display systems do not indicate the perspective display's field of view (FOV) on the moving map display.
Considering the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide an aircraft display system and method for indicating one or more parameters of the perspective display's FOV on a moving map display in an intuitive and readily-comprehendible manner. It would further be desirable if the system and method were further able to incorporate additional aircraft parameters into the FOV determination for display on the moving map, such as the aircraft's roll angle and/or pitch angle. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the invention.